A lofty scheme fails to take off

By Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

Good schemes normally remain just what they are: schemes. Seldom do they acquire a concrete shape and prove to be helpful to the general public. And this is just what appears to have happened to the newly-launched Community Policing scheme of the Delhi police.

Aimed at strengthening the existing Special Police Officer scheme, Traffic Warden scheme, Senior Citizens scheme and the Neighbourhood Watch Scheme, the concept of Community Policing was thought of as an interface between the community and the police.

It was believed that it would help in ``prevention of crime, seeking participation of the citizens willing to devote their talents for this purpose and seeking support of public for maintenance of order''.

The concept in itself was well thought out. It envisaged appoint of an Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police in a District as the in-charge of the community policing activities in the district. At the police station level, a senior Sub Inspector or Additional SHO was to be appointed as the Community Liaison Officer.

These officers along with others were supposed to provide an efficient grievances redressal system, conduct regular meetings at police station, sub-division, district and range levels. Also, the senior police officers were supposed to visit schools and colleges in their areas for educating the students on security and safety against prevailing crime trends, providing help to victims of crime, and streamlining the ``Chowkidar System''.

But as it turns out, while the necessary appointments have been made, the interaction between the police and the public at large remains abysmally poor. ``Mostly the officers are preoccupied with their investigations, court work or new cases. And so they find it difficult to meet the public at any specified hour.''

So, while the Community Liaison Officers are supposed to be available to members of the public for at least two hours every day at the Duty Officer's counter at the police station, in practise this rarely happens. Likewise, while the investigating officers are supposed to meet the public between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturdays, this remains on paper alone.

In certain measures, however, the Community Policing scheme is being implemented. But here again it is heavily dependent on the interest of some senior officers for its survival. A case in point is North East Delhi. Being a communally sensitive area, the area police have been conducting a number of meetings there ever since the Kanpur incident.

And in order to eliminate the communication gap, the police are also taking the help of Civil Defence volunteers for interacting with people and removing any misgivings.

The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr S.K. Gautam, says the emphasis is on removing the grievances of people. ``If the officers are motivated to work hard and to be sensitive to the feeling of the victims and complainants, then the root cause of most complaints will be eliminated. People want to be heard patiently and want their grievances redressed. That's all. They would rather not have anything more to do with the police.''

As such, in every police station, a personnel with the best track record on good behaviour has been selected the Community Liaison Officer. Stating that this has helped to some extent, the officer asserts constant monitoring of the process is necessary to ensure its success.

Some police officers say the scheme is also a bit too demanding. ``It also entails maintaining of data on local resident welfare associations, traders associations, educational institutions, Neighbourhood watch institutions, security agencies, banks, jewellers, SPOs, Traffic Wardens, Civil Defence Volunteers and Institutions of Social Welfare Department.''

But there is no denying that the police personnel are not keen on implementing the Community Policing scheme. As the chairman of the Federation of RWAs of Vasant Kunj, Mr O.N. Shukla, says the concept is a total failure. ``We hardly have any interaction between the police and the general public. The police personnel lack the human touch which is essential for the success of such plans. They behave in a haughty and very `colonial' manner.''

Mr Shukla believes that the absence of ``community living'' is also to be blamed for the state of affairs. ``People seldom come forth and together to press for their rights. The only time they come out is when they have a common complaint. Otherwise everyone appears content in his own cocoon.'' With the general public divided, the police personnel hardly feel any pressure. They choose to act as per their convenience.

And so despite the initiatives of some concerned people and police officers, a genuinely good scheme -- aimed at ameliorating the grievances of the general public and assisting the police in fighting crime -- has proved to be a non-starter.

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